My Antique Brownie Camera

Posted by: admin

September 20th, 2011 >> Uncategorized

We come across a lot of photography equipment. Here’s the bottom line.

A lot of people and I mean a lot, have an old Brownie or other similar Box type camera from the early 1900’s. And even though they are indeed 100 years old they are virtually worthless with a very few exceptions. And that’s because they made millions of them and they were cheap. They’re still cheap!

Time travel 100 years later to the time just before digital cameras came out(80-90’s).  They made millions of point and shoot type 35mm & 110 cameras and the same applies to virtually all of them. Even though some were pretty expensive, most have little collector value now.

There is some interest in the more sophisticated 35 mm cameras of the 60-80’s era. The better brands that had adjustable settings and interchangeable lenses. But even with them the values are generally nowhere near what the cameras were originally sold for. If the camera comes with extra lenses, that can help, especially if the lenses are made by the same maker as the camera. But here in Florida there is a big problem with lenses being affected by fungus. It is hard to spot by a novice and just about impossible to get rid of and collectors hate it because it can spread to their other lenses.

Medium and Large format cameras of the type used by professional photographers usuallly have some value. These are the kind that used larger film than the 35mm and 110 cameras.

And there is some interest in the better quality sub-miniature or “spy” cameras.

The photography field is very diverse and of course there are exceptions in all classes, so when in doubt–check it out.  We have a lot of camera reference books and price guides and find ourselves checking them often because rare & valuable items do surface quite often and you don’t want to throw out something good.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 at 7:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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